High voltage, low inductance, low jitter, and high longevity gas switches are often required for pulsed-power applications. See U.S. Pat. No. 9,294,085, issued Mar. 3, 2016, which is incorporated herein by reference. Laser triggering is often used to decrease the probability of pre-fires or misfires in high-voltage gas switches. Current laser triggered switches rely on plasma formation at the surface of the opposing electrode or on a local plasma formed in the midplane gap between the two electrodes. See A. Larsson et al., “Test bed for time jitter studies of laser-triggered gas-discharge switches,” Proc. 18th IEEE PPC, Chicago, Ill., USA June 2011, pp. 760-765; A. Larsson et al., “Laser triggering of spark gap switches,” IEEE Trans. Plasma Sci. 42(10), 2943 (2014); S. F. Glover et al., “Laser triggering of spark gap switches with less than 100 mJ's of energy,” Proc. 16th IEEE PPC, Albuquerque, N. Mex., USA June 2007, pp. 240-244; Y. Itoh et al., J. Appl. Phys. 54(6)2956 (1983); H. C. Harjes et al., IEEE Trans. Plasma Sci. 10(4), 261 (1982); and H. C. Harjes et al., IEEE Trans Plasma Sci. 8(3) 170 (1980).
However, there remains a need for reliable triggering of small form-factor, low-inductance high-voltage gas switches that are capable of fast rise times (e.g., less than 20 ns) into low impedance loads (e.g., less than 10 ohms).